Glauber Rocha - Antonio Das Mortes

Following on from the hugely successful and acclaimed Black God, White Devil (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) comes Glauber Rocha’s powerful award-winning sequel Antonio Das Mortes aka O Dragão da Maldade contra o Santo Guerreiro.

Part epic, part folklore, part political allegory, Rocha's Antonio Das Mortes is one of the most memorable films of the Cinema Novo (Brazilian filmmakers movement) by one of its finest filmmakers.

The film returns to the Brazilian Sertao 29 years after Antonio das Mortes killed Corisco (the "Blond Devil"), last of the Cangaceiros. The legendary 'warrior saint' Antonio (Maurício do Valle) is now the central character – a jagunco (hired gunman) contracted to kill cangaceiros and protect a powerful landowner. He tracks down and kills the members of a guerrilla band, only to realise after killing the last rebel in ritualistic combat that his fight should be against the landowners rather than the dispossessed country folk.

The film celebrates his turn against the military regime that hires him, offering his righteous fight as a model for all revolutionary resistance and garnered Rocha the Best Director award at the 1969 Cannes Films Festival.

“The film is like an epic poem, lionising revolutionaries like Che Guevara as it lovingly photographs the mountains and plains of the country - a land whose people are being destroyed by post-colonial exploitation” The Guardian

SPECIFICATIONS

PAL DVD 9 All Regions
Running Time 100 mins
Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles
Licensed from Rocha family / Latino Fusion